After a disappointing Season 7, last season Brisbane Roar returned to the finals after a strong end to the regular season.  Immense underdogs, the Roar put in one of the performances of the season against eventual champions Melbourne City but in the end it wasn't enough.

Heading into the 2016/17 season, there changes aplenty with one of the W-League's most successful sides and stalwart Katrina Gorry believes that the two time champions are set up to have an even better campaign.

What are the players' expectations of the upcoming season?

I don’t think we have really discussed it. I think that last year we proved to a lot of teams how good we are and how much depth we have in Queensland and we’ve kind of just built on that.

We want to win, we want to win championships, we want to win games but I guess at the moment we have been focusing on how good we can be and getting ourselves fit and ready for the first game.

What are you looking forward to most about the ninth season of the W-League?

I’m just pretty excited to see how many internationals we are getting over now into Australia and a lot of people wanting to play in our league I think it's going to be one of the best seasons we are going to have.

I’ve heard a lot about other teams and I know that they have been recruiting well and everything has kind of come together and obviously more money is getting thrown into the league, which is really positive.

With a number of changes to the team in the off-season, how do you expect the new players to integrate into the team?

They’ve integrated into the team better than I expected to be honest. Obviously there has been a few things going on with the club but we’ve always stayed strong as a club and as a team so that’s definitely helped. We have an incredible culture in the team at the moment that I’ve kind of never been a part of so I think we are pretty lucky to have the girls we have. Everyone’s slotted in nicely.

Are there any players who will standout this season?

I hope everyone has a standout season. But Ange Beard showed what she is capable of last year, and has gotten better and stronger in the off-season and in the pre-season as well. I am definitely looking forward to seeing her on the pitch again.

The likes of Polks [Clare Polkinghorne], and everyone else that usually has an incredible season and the younger girls coming through as well. They’ve had people to look up to and kind of train them in the off-season and pre-season. I’m pretty excited.

Who do you think will be the toughest match up?

As always I think City will be another great team. They have obviously recruited pretty well with their internationals but as have Western Sydney and looking at Sydney FC, they’ve got the core group of girls back so they are definitely going to be a hard one. Pretty exciting first match I think.

[irp]

Are you looking forward to playing at Suncorp stadium again this season?

Yeah we absolutely love playing at Suncorp before the men we get a pretty decent crowd especially towards the end of the game when they are coming in to watch the men, but I feel like we just got a lot more supporters now and always playing on a big stage makes it a better match.

There are no major tournaments for the Matildas until the Asian Cup in 2018.  What are your personal expectations until then?

I haven’t been looking to go overseas; I’ve kind of just been concentrating on W-League. I just think about individually growing myself as a player and as a person. I don’t think that means I have to go overseas, I really enjoy training by myself and working on things individually. We have a great program in Queensland that we can play in all year around as well.

What are your words of wisdom to the younger players in the squad?

I think just be confident. You’re in the league because you have something that other people don’t or you bring something to the table. That’s kind of what we’ve drilled into our younger girls coming through and also people that are new to the W-League. You have something to prove, you are obviously capable of playing at the highest level in Australia so be confident about it.